Improvement in printing-telegraphs



G. L. ANDERS. Printing Telegraph. No. 210,894. Patented Dec. 17,1878,

wimgml'sli Pi, PETERS, PHOTD-UTNOGRAPHER, WASHINGTON. D Q

UNITED STATES PATENT FFI CE.

GEORGE L. ANDERS, OF BOSTON, ASSIGNOR TO E. BAKER W'ELOH, OF CAMBRIDGE,MASSACHUSETTS,

IMPROVEMENT IN PRlNTlNG-TELEGRAPHS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 2 [0,894, datedDecember 17, 1878; ap 'ilication filed July 25'), 1878,

To all whom it may concern;

Be it known that I, GEORGE LEE ANnEEs, of Boston; in the county ofSuffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and usefulImprovement in Printing-Tclegraphs, of which the following is a full,clear, and eX- act description, reference being had to the drawingsaccompanying and forming part of this specification.

This invention relates to that class of printing-telegraphs in which thetype-wheel is rotated step by step either by the direct action upon aratchet-wheel fixed upon the typewheel arbor of a suitablepropelling-pawl vibrated by electromagnetism, or by the action upon aratchet-wheel similarly placed of an escapemcnt similarly vibrated, inconnection with a train operated by suitable power and imparting aconstant tendency to the typewheel arbor to rotate, and the pressmechanism is moved to effect the printing on a pause in the step-by-stepmovement of the type wheel.

The invention consists in the combination, with the printing mechanism,of a toothed wheel or its equivalent fixed upon the typewheel arbor orits equivalent; an oscillating arm or itsequivalent, the end of whichbears upon the periphery of the toothed wheel, and is moved by the teethof said wheel as they are successively presented to the end of the armon the rotation of the type-wheel arbor or its equivalent, but is movedin the other direction by the action of a retracting-spring or itsequivalent; a device acting to retard the movement of the arm in onedirection but permitting itsfree movement in the other direction, saiddevice consisting of a serrated dish rot-ated'by the action upon thedisk, or upon a ratchet-wheel fixed upon the arbor of the disk, of apropelling-pawl attached to the oscillating arm, said pawl hein g soconstructed that it acts to rotate the disk only when the oscillatingarm moves in one direction, but slips over the teeth of theratchet-wheel or serrated disk when the arm moves in the otherdirection, in combination with an escapeinent which prevents the diskfrom being rotated except at a certain rate; and a device whichdetermines the action of the printing mechanism, the result accomplishedby this arrangement of mechanism being that while the typewheel isrotating the oscillating arm will not have time between the successiveimpulses given to itby the teeth of the toothed wheel on the type-wheelarbor to move in the opposite direction given by these impulses sufiiciently to determine the action of the press, owing to the action of theretarding device; but when the motion of the type-wheel is arrested thearm will move sufficiently to set the press mechanism in action andcause the impression of a letter.

The method of effecting the rotation of the type-wheel or effecting themovement of the printing mechanism forms no part of this invention,which relates solely to the combination, with any device for rotating atype-wheel with a step-by-step motion, of mechanical means forautomatically effecting the action of any suitable press-moving devicewhen the step-by-step rotation of the type'wheel is arrested on bringingthe letter which is desired to print in proper relation to the press;and the invention is applicable to telegraph-instruments in which poweris used for rotating the type-wheel and operating the press, and tothose in which the type-wheel is propelled by the direct action ofelectromagnetism and the press mechanism operated by a magnet placed ina local circuit or in the main circuit.

For the purpose, however, of more clearly explaining the constructionand operation of my improvement, I have shown the invention applied to aparticular form of telegraph apparatus, which forms the subject of anapplication for a patent of even date with this. In this instrumentthere is but one main drivingtrain; but the type-wheel train andpress-train derive motion from the same main power, and

the two sets of gearing are connected by an epicyclic gearing of novelconstruction, which I have described and claimed in another appl icationfora patent; and also the escapementwheel on the type-wheel shaft isreleased by an escapement attached to the armature of a Siemenspolarized magnet, acted upon by alternate positive and negativecurrents, the arrangement for moving the type-wheel being similar tothat shown and described in my patent of October 28, 1873, and others.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a side view in elevation ofthis telegraphinstrument, a portion of the'framing being broken away forthe purpose of showing the retarding mechanism; and Fig. 2 is a planview of the same.

In these figures similar letters refer to similar parts.

Referring to these figures, A A are two plates, forming the framing ofthe instrument, supporting its several parts, and aii'ording bearingsthereto. B is the gear-wheel ot' the main driving-train, which issuitably inclosed under the framing AA, and is driven by a weight orspring. G is an arbor, bearing in the framing AA, and having upon it apinion, D, which gears with the wheel B. Attached to the arbor G, atright angles thereto, is an arm, I; upon which, as a bearing, is thebeveled pinion 'H, which gears with two bevelgears,-F F, opposed to oneanother. These bevel-gears are attached each to sleeves E E, upon thearbor O, and upon each of these sleeves, respectively, are fixed thegear-wheels B B The gear-wheel B is connected, by a pinion, D, with thetype-wheel arbor, and the gear-wheel B gears into the arbors and O ofthe pressescapement by means of the pinions D D By this arrangement ofgearing, when the movement of the press mechanism is prevented by theaction of its escapement the power of the main driving-train willoperate the type-wheel arbor through the pinion D, arbor 0, arm I,beveled pinion H, bevelgear F, gearwheel B and pinion D and when thepress-escapement releases the press mechanism, andthe type-wheelescapement holds the typewheel arbor, the power of the main drivingtrain will operate the press through the pinion D, arbor 0, arm I,beveled pinion H, bevel gear F, gearwheel B and ratchet-wheel K.

O is the escapement-wheel on the type-wheel arbor. M is the polarizedSiemens magnet, and l the escapement. The type-wheel is shown at T.

of the frame-plate A, the end of which lever bears against theratchetwvheel, so that it is raised by the teeth of the ratchet-wheelwhen the latter rotates. A pin, N, projects through the plate A, andwhen the lever L is raised this pin raises the lever B, to which thepresspad S is attached, and theimpressionis made. I have described andclaimed this device for press when the rotation of the type-wheel isarrested.

Fixed upon the type-wheel arbor G is a wheel, J, provided with teeth orpins. 0 is a rock-shaft, properly supported in the framing, and a is anarm attached thereto, the end of which arm rests upon the teeth or pinson the wheel J, so that as these teeth or pins, on the rotation of thetype-wheel arbor, are successively presented to the end of the arm n,the said arm and its rock-shaft will be vibrated. c is another arm, alsoattached to the rockshaft and vibrating with it, the end of which isprovided with a spring-paw l, f. his a ser- I rated disk, mounted on anaxis on the frameplate A, and t is a smaller toothed wheel upon itsarbor. p is a pendulouspieee of metal pivoted to the frame-plate A,having attached to it an anchor-escapement, Z, which bears against theserrated wheel h, so that when the wheel or disk rotates it will causethe pendulum to oscillate by the action of the escapement, and the diskwill be prevented from rotating, ex cept at the rate determined by thetime re quired for the pendulum to make its oscillations.

It is obvious that if the anchor-escapement is placed by the side of theserrated wheel instead of under the same, as shown, the pendulumattachment will not be necessary, as the escapement will then vibrate oroscillate in the same manner as a pendulum.

Instead of the escapement above described, any suitable escapement whichwill accomplish the same result may be used.

The pawl f, by acting upon the toothed wheel 1;, rotates the disk whenthe arm 0 moves to the position shown in full lines; but when the arm 0moves to the position shown in dotted lines, the spring-pawl f will slipover the teeth of the toothed wheel .without moving it. Attached to therock-shaft is another arm, I), to which is attached a spring, 8, whichhas a tendency to draw the arm down or into the position shown in fulllines. The arm 6 may be attached to the arm to instead of to therockshaft.

When the teeth on the wheelJ strike against the end of the arm a the endof the arm is The mechanism for moving the press, which press is shownat S, consists of a ratchetwheel, K, attached to the sleeve of thegearwheel B and a lever, L, pivoted on the inside raised up, therock-shaft is moved, and the sprin gpawl glides over the teeth of thewheel iwithout rotating it but,when the end of the arm escapes from thepin or tooth on the wheelJ and commences to drop down from the positionshown in dotted lines to that shown in full lines, the pawl f will actupon the toothed wheel i,- but, for the reason that the rotation of thiswheel is retarded by the action of the pendulum, the arm a will havetime to move only a short distance before it is again elevated by thepresentation to it of the next succeeding tooth or pin on the wheel J.

When the arm is allowed to fall its full distance the press mechanism isreleased, but not until then, and consequently as long as the type-wheelarbor rotates the press will be prevented from acting.

The toothed wheel J may be placed upon any arbor connected with thetype-wheel arher.

The press-escapement consists of two arbors, O 0 mounted in the framing,one above the other, and driven by the wheel B by means of pinions 1) DEach of these arbors has an arm attached to it, the arm 0, attached tothe arbor C extending downward, and the arm d, attached to the arbor 0extending upward, so that the ends of these arms nearly meet. Betweenthe ends of these arms plays the arm b upon the rock-shaft C, and whenthe arm I) is drawn down by the spring 8 to the posit-ion shown in fulllines in Fig. 1, the arm dstrikes against a lip on the under side of thearm I), so that the revolution of said arm (I will be prevented and thepress mechanism held fixed; and when the arm I) is elevated to theposition shown in dotted lines, the arm 0' will be prevented from movingby striking; the end of I), and the press mechanism will be held.

The position of the arms 0 and d in relation to each other is such thatwhile the arm I) is passing between 6' and d and the press-train is freeto move it will be able to move the distance of one tooth on the ratchetwheel, and sufficient to move the press once.

Instead of the abovedeseribed eseapement, any other suitable form ofesca-pement may be made use of which will accomplish the sameresult-namely, a momentary release of the press mechanism sufficient toeffect an impression when the arm 6 is allowed to drop down.

The press mechanism, instead of being operated mechanically, asdescribed, may be operated by an electro-niagnet whose circuit iscontrolled by the action of the retarding device, in any suitablemanner; or the pressmagnet may be placed in the main-line circuit, andits action prevented by the retarding device until a sufficient pause inthe step-bystep rotation of the type-wheel takes place.

I am aware that a device which retards the action of the press mechanismis not new in printing-telegraphs5 but I 'am not aware of any devicewhich has the mode of operation of that which I have described, andwhich is equally simple in construction and efficient in action.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent ofthe United States, is v 1. In aprinting-telegraph, the combination, withthe press mechanism, of a toothed wheel or its equivalent fixed upon thetype-wheel arbor or its equivalent, controlling the press mechanism, andan escapement which permits the free movement of the controlling devicein one direction, but retards its movement in the other direction,substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

2. In a printing-telegraph, the combination, with the press mechanism,of a toothed wheel or its equivalent fixed upon the type-wheel arbor orits equivalent, an arm oscillated by the action of the toothed wheel andcontrolling thepress mechanism, a spring-pawl attached to the said arm,aserrated wheel rotated by said pawl, and an escapement, substantiallyas and for the purpose set forth.

3. In aprintingtelegraph, the combination, with the toothed wheel J orits equivalent fixed upon the type-wheel arbor or its equivalent, of theoscillating arm a, rock-shaft C arm 0, pawl f, toothed wheel 2',serrated wheel h, escapement Z, pendulum p, and arms I) dc,substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in thepresence of two subscribing witnesses.

GEORGE LEE ANDERS.

Witnesses DAVID J. HOBART, CHARLES W. HOBART.

